OPENING REMARKS BY THE GOVERNOR OF THE BANK OF MONGOLIA

DISTINGUISHED GUESTS,
EXCELLENCIES,
LADIES AND GENTLEMEN,

Good morning, and a very warm welcome to Ulaanbaatar.

It is a great pleasure to welcome you to the High-Level Sustainable Finance Forum.

Mongolia is honored to host the international community for COP17, and we are especially pleased to welcome such a diverse group of policymakers, financial institutions, development partners, businesses and experts for these two days of discussion.

I would like to express my sincere appreciation to the Office of the President of Mongolia and the Ministry of Environment and Climate Change, as well as the UNCCD, the World Bank Group, the Mongolian Sustainable Finance Association, and our other domestic and international partners for bringing this Forum together.

For many of our international guests, this may be your first visit to Mongolia. Alongside the busy schedule of COP17, I hope you will find some time to experience Mongolia’s culture and hospitality, and to see something of our country beyond the conference halls.

We hope these two days will offer an open and productive space to exchange ideas, learn from one another and build new partnerships. More broadly, we hope COP17 in Ulaanbaatar will deliver meaningful results and strengthen international cooperation on the challenges we all share.

Ladies and gentlemen,

Land degradation, water scarcity and the growing impacts of climate change have consequences far beyond the environment. They affect livelihoods and communities, food production and economic activity, and ultimately the resilience of our societies.

For Mongolia, these challenges are very real. Our vast rangelands are central to our natural environment, our traditional way of life and the livelihoods of many rural communities. The vulnerability of pastoral livelihoods to changing environmental conditions reminds us of the very real human and economic consequences involved.

But these challenges are not Mongolia’s alone.

The countries gathered here differ greatly in geography, levels of development and economic structures. We also have different capacities and different resources at our disposal. Yet the challenges we face increasingly cross-national borders and institutional boundaries.

No country or institution has all the answers.

The challenges are shared, and their solutions must also be built together.

The financial sector has an important contribution to make to this shared effort. Restoring degraded land, strengthening water security and protecting ecosystems all require investment. While finance is only one part of the solution, turning good policies and good ideas into action will require public resources, private capital and international development finance to work together more effectively.

Our agenda over the next two days reflects this.

Today, we will look at issues that are especially relevant to Mongolia: rangelands and pastoral livelihoods, water resilience, and the implications of climate and environmental risks for financial and investment decisions. Tomorrow, the discussion will broaden to long-term conservation finance, the effective use of public resources, and the contribution of private capital and market-based approaches.

What I particularly welcome about this Forum is that it brings together different perspectives on the same challenge. We will hear from policymakers and regulators, financial institutions and businesses, international and development partners, researchers and conservation organizations, as well as people whose livelihoods are directly connected to the land.

We will also see ideas move towards action, including today’s launch of Mongolia’s SDG Finance Taxonomy 2.0.

I hope these discussions will help us understand what has worked, what we can learn from one another, and how different sources of finance and expertise can work better together.

Ladies and gentlemen,

The challenges we are discussing require contributions from many institutions, each bringing their own responsibilities and expertise.

For central banks, our contribution is naturally focused on our core responsibilities. Climate and environmental risks can affect the broader economy and, through different channels, our mandates – price stability and financial stability. Understanding these links and supporting a sound and resilient financial system are therefore increasingly relevant to our work.

This is also how the Bank of Mongolia approaches green and sustainable finance.

Over the past several years, Mongolia’s financial sector has made encouraging progress in this area. This has been a collective effort involving government institutions, financial regulators, banks and other financial institutions, industry organizations, and our international and development partners.

The Bank of Mongolia has contributed to this progress by helping to create a sound and enabling regulatory environment for green and sustainable finance. More recently, we have established a dedicated Green Finance Unit and implemented a policy to support the financial sector’s contribution to Mongolia’s green transition. We will continue to play our part, alongside the many institutions and partners whose efforts are essential to moving this agenda forward. At the same time, we have much to learn. This Forum gives us a valuable opportunity to share Mongolia’s experience where it may be useful, and to learn from the knowledge and experience that all of you bring to Ulaanbaatar.

I would also like to warmly invite you to visit the Bank of Mongolia pavilion at the COP17 event campus. Our colleagues will be very pleased to welcome you, share more about Mongolia’s experience in green and sustainable finance, and continue these conversations with you.

Distinguished guests,

The diversity represented in this room is one of the Forum’s greatest strengths.

I hope the next two days will bring open and constructive discussions. I hope we will share what has worked, speak openly about what has not, build new connections, and identify areas where we can continue working together after this Forum.

Most importantly, I hope the ideas and partnerships that emerge here will contribute to the wider work of COP17 and help turn our shared ambitions into meaningful progress.

I wish you productive and rewarding discussions over the next two days, and every success throughout COP17.

And to all our international guests, I hope your stay will be both enjoyable and rewarding. I hope you have an opportunity to discover more of Mongolia, and that you leave with new friendships and warm memories of your time here.

Thank you, and I wish you a very successful Forum.

High-Level Sustainable Finance Forum 2026 (Blue Zone MET 21, Aug 19 2026, 9:30 am)